$50 Budget

Illegal Act #1: Script and Performance Rights

I have a magic trick I call the Drugstore Run. Any habitual art-maker knows this one. It is performed with astonishing frequency on the night of a show. It goes like this:

1. While performers are getting dressed, take an inventory of last-minute needs.

2. Run to the nearest drug store.

3. In five minutes or less fast-walk those aisles and pick up everything on your list. Altoids, a pair of tights, band-aids, spray starch, rubber cement and batteries, for example.

4. Approach the check-out line for the the finale….

Your $50 bill morphs before your eyes into a $5!

If that is the budget, as it has been for most shows since 1992, that $50 probably wants to sit in a cash envelope untouched until the day of the performance. Otherwise someone will have to go out of pocket for those Altoids. It always seems harmless at the time, but as a policy, going-out-of-pocket gets out of hand immediately. If someone needs a band-aid, they need a band-aid (looting the first aid cabinet for medical tape as a costume fix i…